I am a retired professor who is going blind. I researched the Francis Wren/Wrenn (1680 - 1800) line of southern Va for over twenty years and have my notes on thumb drive, spreadsheets and a notebook having used books and LDS tapes primarily. I published my findings in 2014 in the Annals of Genealogical Research. While my findings were interesting at least to me, what was startling was to discover that the key to finding my ancestor, Randolph Wren, was a mistake on the marriage of his parents in a book by Knorr. This mistake was discovered by editors when the book was to be reprinted. Of course, they deleted, it. However, it was this original mistake that led to the discovery of his parents. They had died by 1774 when he was an infant, thus explaining in part why he was not mentioned in any will in the State. (Only the oldest child was named but all were supported until they reached the age of majority.) Hopefully, my ancestor's name is now and forever corrected
Technologically, the local library provided me with a ScanPro 2000 which could lift the mold off ancient records so that it was possible to see page numbers on financial support of his siblings and himself, and land records which were, otherwise, totally covered up by mold on the original pages. The land record of 1790 was especially helpful as without the page numbers his sister, her marriage to Thomas Newsom and his purchase of land for them would not have come to light. The machine enabled me to find the people who raised him as well as his siblings and their families.
I want to make my research notes available to anyone researching Wrens in southern VA. These notes are a collection of the Wren/Wrenn names in Surry, Sussex, Isle of Wight, Southampton, Brunswick, Prince George ,and Greensville counties, VA., marriages, land records, wills from thee counties.The only thing I would like in return is the postage.
